Rolf Ludwig

Günter Walcher, 40-years-old, is a hardworking, apolitical West German businessman caught in a moral conflict. He is offered a promotion to become the head of a division—on the condition that he find a reason to fire Zacharias, a communist and the work council chairman.

In a small village in West Prussia in the 1870s, Germans, Poles, Gypsies and Jews live together as neighbors. One night Johann, a German mill-owner, secretly opens the dam gates and floods the mill of his Jewish rival Levin. After his business is ruined and his calls for justice go unanswered, Levin leaves town.

Paul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. They meet and discover a strong passion for each other. Life seems like a dream when they're together - but their short flights from the burdens of reality are once and again interrupted by Paul's ties to family and career.

At the end of the 19th century, the Wyoming Oil Company has established itself in the vicinity of Wind River City at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, where they have been illegally pumping oil from Native American territory. One of the company's greedy agents, Mike Allison, kicks out both his white partners and the Native Americans. He has his some of his associates secretly murdered and blames it on the Native Americans, who are then killed when they get in the way of his plans. Five chiefs with lifelong shares in the Oil Company die mysteriously as a result. The young chief Shave Head asks his a half-blooded brother Chris Howard for help.

A conference is to be held once again to discuss the construction of a new dam, which Professor Paul Satie rejects. During a train journey, he spontaneously leaves the train. Here in Wolfsgrün, from 1948 to 1950, he helped build the old, now far too small dam as a youth brigadier. He and the others who helped build it have erected a monument to this. A monument with his name on it. Is that perhaps why he is against the new dam?

Winterkind tells a tragic story of the Russian Yelena, who after seven years of captivity learns that her son Boris, born in the camp, has been adopted by a German couple.

Martin, the young protagonist of this hybrid documentary interspersed with staged scenes, is afraid of school, his father, and the future in general. He could perhaps talk to his mother, but he doesn't dare because of his poor school performance. Martin knows that he will have to repeat the year if things continue as they are.

In the winter of 1945/46, new teacher Hadubrant is tricked by Olly, the 14-year-old daughter of his landlady, into stealing a wild boar. It has fallen into Olly's trap, but as game is the property of the Soviet army, Hadubrant wants to put it to good use: school meals. But others in the village are also interested in the pig. The mayor wants it to fulfill his meat plan, the priest wants to swap it for coal to heat his church, the policeman wants to return it to its rightful owner, and some simply want to eat it. The pig keeps disappearing in mysterious ways. Hadubrant's commitment to his charitable cause finally earns him a delegation to the district town for "higher duties".

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the paths of three people on the run cross by chance in the small Baltic Sea port of Rerig: Gregor, a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD); Judith, a Jewish woman; and a pastor who wants to save an Ernst Barlach sculpture classified as degenerate art. All those involved share a common fate and the dream of a fisherman's boy from Zanzibar, which is less a real goal than a utopia of a better future. Adaptation of Alfred Andersch's novel.

October 1918: Karl Liebknecht is released from prison and Berlin workers celebrate his release. Although WWI is almost over, the German Kaiserreich in vain sends its last reserves to the slaughter. The working class is in a rebellious mood; the uprising of Kiel’s sailors against war and militarism sets off a call for revolution led by Liebknecht. On November 9, Liebknecht declares the Free Socialist Republic of Germany. But pro-Kaiser military and right wing Social Democrats oppose him.

Fifteen-year-old Heinz Stielke is a Hitler Youth fanatic who is devastated to learn a hidden truth about his respected father who was a German officer in WWII: He was Jewish. Pushed out of his community after the discovery, young Heinz falls into a tailspin of alienation and anger. He is subsequently thrust into a series of social collisions across the war-torn German fatherland.

Kasper Mai, an export merchant and comrade with a “clean” record, discovers he is the prince of Hohenlohe-Liebenstein. His royal grandmother designates him as the heir to her estate. A private trip to her reveals that she does not want a NATO airbase built on her land. The GDR and his grandmother thus find a common interest, and a clever lawyer from the East works against other family members looking to settle their debts with the estate money.

No one has any time for Moritz. And at school, things are not exactly the greatest either. Moritz runs away and moves into the inside of an advertising pillar. A speaking cat, a circus girl and a street sweeper become his new friends. Gradually, they help the young boy to realize that running away does not solve anything.

It’s the spring of 1945 in a small resort town on the Baltic. Günter is 16 and firmly believes that the Germans will win the war. During the hunt for a forced labourer who is on the run, Günter catches him and watches as he is shot to death. He proudly accepts the award of an Iron Cross before being shipped to the nearby front as part of the last contingent of troops. He is quickly captured by Soviet soldiers, but manages to escape and return home. When the town is occupied by the Red Army, Günter is arrested for the murder of the forced labourer. The film was banned in 1968 before it was completed, and a large portion of the negative was later destroyed.

Albert Hauptmann is an out of work waiter in Cologne who is often confused with a former Captain of the Nazi Army. Albert uses this to his advantage and becomes the Director of the Montan Corporation, and a member of the West German Parliament. Herr Karjanke, the real Captain, learns of Albert’s ruse, and wants to claim his "rightful" position in Parliament. But Karjanke cannot come forward until his politicking "Doppelganger" succeeds in passing an amnesty law for war criminals. When Albert is finally brought before a judge on charges of fraud, he learns that this own amnesty law does not apply to him.

Jakob is a poor farmer′s boy. Because of his timidity that even makes him run away from mice, he is often ridiculed by other people. Even the king is ill-disposed towards him. One day he sends Jakob to the devil to rob him of three golden hairs. This is supposed to be Jakob′s certain death. But naïve Jakob gets going and on his way even promises the oppressed subjects of the king to ask the devil for a way out of their misery.

The fully loaded Trabi rolled towards the Baltic Sea and father Detlef is for once in excellent mood. Did he not agreed with his friend Alfred, located immediately each issue back with an urgent telegram from the resort. But as the two then adventurous go stalking in the jungle of the big city, they experience a failure after another. Sullen Detlef longs for marriage Trott and campground. There would be matched and over the years rather bland become married woman Eveline is undergoing a remarkable transformation.

Germany at the end of World War II: Teacher Grübler lives in a small village in the Ore Mountains together with his 15-year old son Wolfgang. At school, the dutiful Grübler, a member of the NSDAP, teaches his pupils to volunteer for military service, but when his own son volunteers for the Waffen SS, he is nevertheless shocked and fears for his boy′s life. But Wolfgang starts to hate his father for his doubts: He thinks his father is a coward. In his desperation, Grübler chains and kidnaps his son to hide him in a dugout in the forest until the end of the war. In their shelter, father and son are fighting bitterly but when the Nazis who still believe in the "Endsieg" discover their hideout, Grübler sacrifices his life to save Wolfgang.

This is part one of a two-part biopic about Karl Liebknecht. In 1914, Germany is arming itself for war. Karl Liebknecht, left-wing revolutionary Social Democrat, workers’ leader and a virulent antimilitarist, is one among 110 SPD members of Parliament who vote against approving war loans. From then on, he is considered un-German and a traitor to the fatherland, and his own party’s leadership turns against him. Despite threats, Liebknecht speaks up against the war and writes the manifesto “The Main Enemy Is at Home.” Even when he is arrested and charged with treason, he does not surrender.

A young soldier discovers three chests of copper, silver and gold and an old tinder-box in the hollow of an old oak tree. He is now rich. But he squanders the money until it is all gone. All he has left is the old tinder-box. He uses it to light a small pipe and three large dogs come to his rescue. Based on the fairy-tale by Hans Christian Anderson.

Young lovers Hero and Claudio, soon to wed, conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles Benedick and Beatrice to wed as well.

In 1523, young Thomas Müntzer arrives with his wife Ottilie in the Thuringian village Allstedt to assume the rectorate. As a follower of Luther′s teachings, he finds in the Bible not only reasons for clerical, but also for secular reforms. But when Luther turns away from the rural population after a discord with Müntzer, it is Müntzer who becomes the peoples′ spokesman. He is forced to go to Southern Germany, where he convenes with revolting farmers. But his way leads him back to Thuringia. In 1525, he and Heinrich Pfeiffer form the centre of the Thuringian peasant uprising in Mühlhausen, but their success is diminished by the fact that peasants and craftsmen don′t seem to be able to work together. In Frankenhausen, Müntzer becomes the leader of a peasants′ army that is set to fighting the ruler′s army – and sustains a devastating loss. Müntzer is arrested and sentenced to death by decapitation for his insurgency.

The wrenching story of a woman sentenced in 1934 to ten years in prison for antifascist activities. The love between her and her fiancée enables her to survive the tribulations of her time in prison, where she is one of few political prisoners.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the author of Werther, the romantic novel that was transformed into a play during Goethe's lifetime and which initiated the whole German romantic movement. The book's story tells of young love and suicide. In this East German film, based on a book by Thomas Mann, Lotte (Lilli Palmer) was the woman who served as the model for the heroine in the novel Werther. She comes to Goethe's hometown for a visit, and her experiences there eerily re-create episodes from the book. Goethe comes across as a pompous old bore, and his friends as pandering sycophants, in this very proper communist party-sponsored, anti-heroic movie.

Polizeiruf 110 is a long-running German language detective television series. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic Republic, and after the dissolution of Fernsehen der DDR the series was picked up by ARD. It was originally created as a counterpart to the West German series Tatort, and quickly became a public favorite.

Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort was an East German television series.

The series "Achterbahn" is about friendships and the handling of difficulties and problems from children's everyday lives.

The film is set in the 1930s in Germany. Maria Rheine and Mark Löwenthal, two young actors working in a small theater, are in love with each other. Their love affair is interrupted by Nazi racial policies; Mark is no longer allowed to perform in German theaters because he is a Jew. In order to continue acting, he joins the newly formed Jewish Theater in Berlin. Maria, who is not Jewish, faces no restrictions on her career, and she becomes a successful actress at a big theater in Munich. But her love for Mark eventually leads her to decide to sacrifice both career and security to remain close to him. She fakes a suicide, assumes a Jewish identity and, as Manja Löwenthal, joins the Jewish Theater.

The love story of Emma and Johannes begins during the hard years of the Great Depression. Emma repeatedly tries to encourage her husband, who is suffering terribly from unemployment. However, the crisis continues to intensify and social disintegration affects millions.

Russian soldier Grisha escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp in the spring of 1917. He is caught and is to be shot as a spy. This decision is controversial. The dispute continues. Grisha is executed on the orders of the army high command.